Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

decree of Destiny, a man arises who is capable of liberating his people from some great
oppression, or of wiping out some bitter distress, or of calming the national soul which had
been tormented through its sense of insecurity, and thus fulfilling what had long been the
universal yearning of the people.
An essential characteristic of what are called the great questions of the time is that
thousands undertake the task of solving them and that many feel themselves called to this
task: yea, even that Destiny itself has proposed many for the choice, so that through the free
play of forces the stronger and bolder shall finally be victorious and to him shall be entrusted
the task of solving the problem.
Thus it may happen that for centuries many are discontented with the form in which their
religious life expresses itself and yearn for a renovation of it; and so it may happen that
through this impulse of the soul some dozens of men may arise who believe that, by virtue of
their understanding and their knowledge, they are called to solve the religious difficulties of
the time and accordingly present themselves as the prophets of a new teaching or at least as
declared adversaries of the standing beliefs.
Here also it is certain that the natural law will take its course, inasmuch as the strongest will
be destined to fulfil the great mission. But usually the others are slow to acknowledge that
only one man is called. On the contrary, they all believe that they have an equal right to
engage in the solution of the diffculties in question and that they are equally called to that
task. Their contemporary world is generally quite unable to decide which of all these
possesses the highest gifts and accordingly merits the support of all.
So in the course of centuries, or indeed often within the same epoch, different men establish
different movements to struggle towards the same end. At least the end is declared by the
founders of the movements to be the same, or may be looked upon as such by the masses of
the people. The populace nourishes vague desires and has only general opinions, without
having any precise notion of their own ideals and desires or of the question whether and how
it is impossible for these ideals and desires to be fulfilled.
The tragedy lies in the fact that many men struggle to reach the same objective by different
roads, each one genuinely believing in his own mission and holding himself in duty bound to
follow his own road without any regard for the others.
These movements, parties, religious groups, etc., originate entirely independently of one
another out of the general urge of the time, and all with a view to working towards the same
goal. It may seem a tragic thing, at least at first sight, that this should be so, because people
are too often inclined to think that forces which are dispersed in different directions would
attain their ends far more quickly and more surely if they were united in one common effort.
But that is not so. For Nature herself decides according to the rules of her inexorable logic.
She leaves these diverse groups to compete with one another and dispute the palm of victory
and thus she chooses the clearest, shortest and surest way along which she leads the
movement to its final goal.
How could one decide from outside which is the best way, if the forces at hand were not
allowed free play, if the final decision were to rest with the doctrinaire judgment of men who
are so infatuated with their own superior knowledge that their minds are not open to accept
the indisputable proof presented by manifest success, which in the last analysis always gives
the final confirmation of the justice of a course of action.
Hence, though diverse groups march along different routes towards the same objective, as
soon as they come to know that analogous efforts are being made around them, they will
have to study all the more carefully whether they have chosen the best way and whether a
shorter way may not be found and how their efforts can best be employed to reach the
objective more quickly.
Through this rivalry each individual protagonist develops his faculties to a still higher pitch
of perfection and the human race has frequently owed its progress to the lessons learned
from the misfortunes of former attempts which have come to grief. Therefore we may